Pages

September 8, 2006

The Binturong's Sweet Tooth

I found a neat little story about the binturong's eating habits in captivity:

They prefer the sweetest foods, with the exception of their taste for meats. Apartial list: apples, melons of all types, cantaloupes, grapes, pears, kiwi, mangos, star fruits,avocados, oranges, grapefruit, nectarines, peaches, cherries, tomatoes, chicken (raw or cooked), mice and rats, beef, fish, some greens (mostly the stems of anything green in their cage except for grass and poison ivy) and any sweets anyone will feed them. Marshmallows are a big hit, as are chocolate muffins, apple pie, and McDonald’s egg nog milkshakes. Never again will I give any binturongs concentrated sugar when I have to share living space with them. When Edgar and Annika were about six weeks old, they teamed up on us on the couch one night. We humans had been foolish enough to think that we could eat lollipops without sharing. After they each finished gnawing the hard candy off the sticks, they walked around for a few minutes licking their sticky lips and paws, seemingly unaffected. Suddenly, Edgar dove across the couch and tackled Annika. She return-pounced, sending them both crashing to the floor. They sped around their “personal indoor track,” climbed to great heights (for them) and leaped, raced across our laps, and would not slow down. When the sugar rush passed almost an hour later, they both drank a lot of water and slept soundly.